


The Unyielding

by AOnceToldStory (orphan_account)



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Canon Compliant, One-Sided Attraction, Post-Movie(s), Slow Burn, Stormpilot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-14 13:27:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5745562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/AOnceToldStory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe leaves on a mission to a distant ally of the Resistance whom they have lost all contact with. Before he can report back, Poe vanishes off the radar as well, seemingly without reason.</p><p>Meanwhile, Finn wakes up from his weeks long coma only to find out about Poe's disappearance. Fear for the pilot's survival cuts even deeper when Poe's space ship and temporary mech droid return without him, both wiped of any information about what happened. But Finn refuses to believe that Poe is gone just like that, and unlike the Resistance he is willing to go to any lengths to find his friend and bring him back. With the help of BB-8, Finn intends to do just that.</p><p>Far into the darkest corners of the galaxy, where there are no laws or conscience, Poe finds himself once again at the mercy of an evil mind who has claimed the pilot's life as his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Poe Dameron moved the curtains aside and stepped right into the little enclosed area, knowing full well that nobody, especially not this med bay’s current inhabitant, was going to try and stop him. He wrinkled his nose at the fumes of cleaners and antibacterials, then relaxed and gave a small smile at the figure resting on the bed in front of him. Finn had not moved an inch since the last time Poe had seen him—yesterday—and looked not a second closer to just waking up and walking out of there. Yet there was a fullness to Finn’s dark, shining complexion. He didn’t look like he had been but a hair’s width from getting his spinal cord burnt off. He didn’t look like he’d been a touch-and-go case just a few weeks ago, as close to death as he was to life.

That’s why there was more of a grateful tone to Poe’s little smile now than there had been at that time. Sadness in his eyes lingered, yes, but the smile was thankful.

"Hey, buddy," Poe said as he pulled up the little stool from the corner and sat down right by Finn’s arm.

He opened his mouth to say something more, then closed it again in the same faint smile as before. He looked up at the little apparatus that was wirelessly connected to Finn’s vitals. A little, purplish blue light faded on and off at a steady pace. Finn’s heartbeats, Poe knew. Screens provided continuous updates on the patient’s status, and even though they were about as understandable to the untrained mind as a Potchkyean speaking Basic, Poe felt certain that Finn was just fine.

If only he’d wake up.

"You know, last time I went away I remember you specifically promising me that you’d be up and running by the time I got back." Poe couldn’t help but chuckle a little. "Chasing after that girl, or whatever… Rey."

He’d told Rey, promised her in a way, that he’d look after Finn while she was gone. The only sentence he’d ever shared with that young woman, who had saved Finn and herself when nobody else was there to aid her. He intended to keep that promise, but he could do nothing just sitting around. Which was kind of why he was sitting here now, talking to a person who most likely couldn’t hear a word he said.

Poe sighed. "We’re off again in—" He looked down at his com link. "—just about two hours. If all goes smoothly we shouldn’t be gone more than a few days. You have until then to wake up, alright?"

Looking at the watch made Poe remember that he was spending time here that he didn’t have. The mission ahead was of yellow level importance—nothing to mess around with to say the least. He gave Finn a friendly clap on the shoulder, put the stool back in the corner, then rose to his feet and began to walk out.

He stopped in the opening between the curtains. He had time for this.

Turning around Poe came to stand right by Finn’s head. He took in the sight of the young man sleeping like a tired child, so whole and safe from harm. He put that image away deep within his memory, stored safely. Without saying anything Poe put the palm of his hand over Finn’s forehead and let it rest there for just a moment. The former stormtrooper was very warm in comparison, a warmth that Poe took with him when he removed his hand and silently left the med wing, closing the curtains behind him.

Finn didn’t know any of this had ever happened when he woke up.


	2. Seventeen days

It just sort of happened. One second Finn was drifting off into unconsciousness on a dark, damp forest floor, pain consuming his entire existence. The next he's lying on his back on something warm and soft, the pain remarkably less intense.

"REY!"

He sprang to life instantly, his eyes opening and his whole body jerking in random movement. But realisation dawned on him just as fast. He was no longer in danger. The light ceiling and the familiar smell. The distant choir of voices and the engines of ships—he knew where he was. He was not in that forest, there was no Kylo Ren coming down on him with a lightsaber, and there was no Rey. That last part stabbed his heart with worry. If he was back on D'Qar, back with the Resistance and absolutely alive, then where was she?

Movement from outside made Finn tense again, and he almost sat up when the curtains shielding him from the rest of the med bay swung to one side. A green-skinned Twi'lek, young and male with small horns decorating his wrapped skull, rushed forward and pushed Finn back into the bed.

"You can't move!" he barked. "You'll rip your wound open again."

Finn tried to speak, but his voice sounded shredded and he could barely form coherent words. "Rey… where is… Rey… and…"

"She's been gone for a while now," the Twi'lek said. "She left with the Wookie to search for the General's brother."

 _So she's alive. Thank the makers_. Finn's relief that his friend was alright was only ever so slightly shadowed by disappointment. He would've really wanted to see her. The shadow grew a little with the one name Finn had yet to ask about.

"Poe…" he croaked.

The Twi'lek's reaction was immediate. A darkness came over his big, glossy eyes and he didn't answer at once. Finn was left for a few moments with the aching pain in his heart that expected the worst of news.

The Twi'lek cleared his throat and didn't look Finn in the eye. "Commander Dameron was sent on a mission. They lost contact with him last week."

* * *

It took every ounce of Finn's dwindling self-control not to barge straight into Communications and demand to see General Organa. He even used memories of his Stormtrooper training to cleanse his mind of emotion, focusing on more physical sensations like the pain in his back that was ever so slowly returning. The Twi'lek healer had refused to let him out of bed, only backing off when Finn had pleaded desperately (also hinting threats of a Stormtrooper's retribution). Only now, sitting in hard-pressed patience on a bench just above the stairs to Communications, did he realise just how badly wounded he'd been.

Memories of that dark forest painted the back of his eyelids, making themselves known every time he blinked. Blood in the snow, red against the white blackness, dripping from the blaster wound dealt to Kylo Ren. Blood of a murderer. The raging madness in the man's dark eyes, the only feature that reminded of his parentage. The surge of energy from his lightsaber as he swung it at Finn time and time again, each blow coming closer to ending his short life as a free man. Finn remembered being unable to take his eyes off the unmoving silhouette of Rey in the snow, hoping that she would wake up to help him, fearing that she would not.

And he remembered the hopelessness he'd felt when Kylo Ren had managed to turn him around, and how the burn of the red lightsaber had cut across his back. He remembered seeing Rey moving, getting up on all fours and calling out just before the pain took consciousness from Finn's body.

Finn was staring at the floor, hunched over and hands clasped. He had been told that Rey was alright, but not how she'd managed to overpower Kylo Ren. Finn wanted to know so badly, wanted another reason to idolise that girl's power and strength. And he knew, somehow, that he would get the chance to hear her tell the tale. That they would see each other again.

Which made his intensifying worry about Poe even less bearable.

A pair of black boots entered Finn's field of vision. He quickly looked up into a light-tanned woman's face, features drawn with an age that somehow suited her. A short bush of greyish blond hair framed her face.

"Phil– Finn, sorry. Right?" she said.

Finn was on his feet even though he probably didn't need to stand at her attention. "Yes, ma'm. Finn… uh, Finn."

She didn't break eye contact even once, just kind of stared at him with a dry smile. Finn wasn't sure if that made him feel welcome or judged. He hadn't spent enough time with the Resistance before the battle of Star Killer Base to know if they liked him or even trusted him here. Only one person currently here had his full respect—General Organa.

"The ex-stormtrooper… Commander Dameron told us all about your little adventure," the woman continued, still eying him. The way she'd said the words _stormtrooper_ and _adventure_ made Finn's scale tip toward her judging him. "He spoke very highly of you."

Finn recoiled, having prepared for something far worse, but then the lump of worry in his stomach became heavier. "Oh…" was the only sound he could produce.

"You're here to see the General, right?" she said, hardly a question. "The meeting's finished. If you hurry you might catch her."

Finn nodded, and the woman whose name he still didn't know turned to walk away. Just before Finn started down the stairs, he turned around after the woman. "Wait." He didn't know why the question slipped his lips. "Where is Poe? Is he even alive?"

No change in the woman's stern expression. "Let the General answer your questions." Then she was gone.

Finn had only been in Communications once before, and he'd had Poe to guide him around that time. Now he was lost, felt like a trespasser on classified ground. Every screen was monitored by at least one person, people walking around with scans and analysis reports, or talking through mouthpieces to other personel. There was the holostation, a round table that projected holographic three-dimensional images for everyone around it to see. It was on now, showing a list with accompanying images of machinery and droids. Through it's blue light Finn saw the silhouette of Leia Organa talking to a pair of lieutenants who Finn only knew by title. He approached them carefully.

Leia saw him in the corner of her eye and gave a quick smile before continuing her conversation. Finn waited patiently in silence, trying not to listen in but finding that he did so anyway. They were talking about recruiting more people to the Resistance. Leia seemed to think the lieutenants' methods a bit extreme. Finn read the holographic list to distract himself. It had hundreds of droid serial numbers on it, but none that Finn recognised. No C-3PO, no R2-D2, and no BB-8.

"Thank you for waiting, Finn," came Leia's voice suddenly. Finn turned around to face her and smiled when she did. "I'm very happy to see you awake."

Finn opened his mouth to speak the hundreds of questions that fought to be asked in his mind, but none would come out. How had the battle on Star Killer Base gone? How was Rey? Where was she? And, most urgently, what had happened to Poe?

Leia's smile faded. "I know you must be wondering about a lot of things, and I wish I had the time to sit down and tell you everything. I will have someone tell you about Star Killer Base."

"I'm sorry, ma'm, but I just need to know one thing right now," Finn countered. "I need to know about Poe. My doctor told me that he is missing."

Leia had hoped that Finn had not found out about that just yet, so that she could have had the time to give him the news a bit more gentle. She didn't let that disappointment show on her face, though. Instead she took a breath, put her hands on the holostation control panel and brought up a star map in place of the droid list. Finn stared at it, not knowing what he was seeing.

"Exactly seventeen days ago we received a distress signal from our allies on Askuun," she explained and pointed to a small group of planets and their sun on the stair map. "I sent Poe to investigate and he told us that there had been a malfunction in the system and that everything was alright. He asked permission to stay and aid in repairs on a few of their spacecraft. We didn't think anything was wrong until five days ago when we received this."

She tapped a few times on a screen on the table's surface. Static and white noise came through speakers that Finn could not see, then it suddenly cleared and Poe's voice came though.

"Commander Poe Dameron, D3X Black Leader, requesting supply shipment 6464-TR. I repeat, request for shipment of supplies 6464-TR at earliest convenience. Mission is still in the green, no backup necessary. Dameron over."

And just like that, Poe's voice vanished and the transmission cut off. Finn stared into the void, very confused. There seemed nothing wrong with his friend as far as his voice could reveal.

"6464 is code message for when an operative is forced to lie at gunpoint or for other reasons can't tell the truth," Leia continued. "TR is short for traitor. We believe that Poe has discovered a spy inside their group, or that maybe the entire organisation has shifted their loyalties. Either way we tried to contact him but all signals are lost."

Finn's heart sank. He tried to think of anything that he could do to help, but came up blank.

"And there's one more thing." Leia leaned with the palms of her hands on the table edge and sighed. "Poe identifies himself as Black Leader, something he shouldn't do when not operating within a team. And he says D3X, and that makes no sense. We can't seem to figure out what he means by it—if it's code or if he's trying to tell us something."

Finn swallowed. "I know I haven't known Poe long, but… he's clever. If he knows something that could help the Resistance, he'd figure out a way to tell you."

"That's what we thought." Leia looked Finn directly in the eye now. She saw worry there, genuine and hurtful. "No, you have not known Poe for long, but he speaks very fondly of you. I thought you should know that."

Finn sighed, seemed to think as he studied the star map and the system Leia had pointed to. "Is there anyone out there looking for him? Have we sent backup?"

"I don't dare to," Leia said regretfully. "Poe mentioned that no backup was needed, and we think that he's been forced to say it. Whatever they are keeping Poe for, they don't want us involved."

"Wait, so you're saying that nobody's looking for him?" Finn asked in a strained voice.

"Normally we would send a single scout, but we can't rule out that the enemy Poe has encountered is from the First Order. If they are, then my hands are bound. I can't risk another battle that could cost lives."

Finn couldn't believe what he was hearing. Poe was on his own, and nobody was coming for him — this sounded horribly much like when he'd been a captive by Kylo Ren aboard the Finalizer. Back then Finn had been his only hope. Had things really changed so little since then?

"Then I'm going after him," he declared, leaving no room for doubt in his voice.

Beside him, Leia felt heavy at heart. She'd expected this. And now that Finn had uttered the words, Leia didn't know if she should act as a General or a caring woman. It was Finn keeping her gaze now, prepared to fight a battle of wills, but Leia knew the outcome already.

"I can't stop you, I know that," she said softly. "You're not officially part of the Resistance so I can't order you to stay. But as the Leader of the Resistance I can't help you either. If you choose to go after Poe, you are on your own."

Finn was perfectly fine with that.


	3. Nayru Sams

At first, taking on the mission of saving Poe Dameron all by himself hadn't sounded too bad. Finn had felt righteous, brave and full of purpose. Now he felt hopeless, as the list of things that were impossible to do without the Resistance's aid grew longer. He had no supplies or belongings beyond the clothes that had been set out for him in med bay. He had no com pad to help keep track of signals, data or navigation. He had no weapons. And, most important of all, he had no ship and no pilot to fly him off of D'Qar.

It had been exactly twenty-two minutes since he walked out of Communications. He was a horrible rescuer.

Finn walked around the base aimlessly, an invisible observer as the events of the Resistance's daily life unfolded before him. Or maybe not as invisible as he hoped. Wherever he went, people gazed at him. Lieutenants and commanders tried not to look at him disapprovingly, but Finn saw through their attempts. The pilots—Poe's comrades—exchanged whispers behind his back. The lower ranking soldiers followed him with eyes filled with something like fascination, as if the idea of a stormtrooper having a face underneath their helmet was that strange to them. Finn didn't blame them. Before he met Poe, the only thing separating him from his teammates was the numbers following his FN designation. That they all _looked different_ had never been important.

But the thing that made all of the Resistance fighters blur together into one thing was that nobody spoke to Finn. Nobody asked who he was or what he was doing. They didn't tell him to go away either. He just wandered around where he pleased, looking at all the blasters and radio equipment and X-wings that could easily help him locate and extract Poe within hours if he just had access to them. Eventually he ended up back in med bay. He gave a nod to the Twi'lek healer as he passed him in the hallway. When he came back to the room he'd slept in for the past few weeks, he just stared at the bed for a full half minute.

Right back where he started.

Finn sat down at the foot of the bed and bent down to re-tie his boot laces. Poe's message, Leia's explanation of said message, his own list of impossibilities. He let the information run through his brain and made mental marks of importance on each segment. Imagined crumpling up and throwing the useless stuff in an imaginary trashcan. It took him a while to figure out that he was thinking according to his programming. Or was this how all people dealt with information? He wasn't entirely sure. After going through what he knew twice, he had narrowed his available options down to three. He could either leave the Resistance base entirely and try his luck somewhere else on the planet, or he could steal (borrow without permission) what he needed to save Poe. His third option seemed like the more reasonable one—ask for help. He couldn't expect General Organa to aid him, or the Resistance as an official organisation, but surely there were other people here who would go out of line for Poe Dameron? Finn couldn't imagine that there wasn't.

He got up and went around the small area of his sick bed. There was the bed itself with its standard issue bedding, an empty wooden stool, and a shelf on wheels loaded with medical equipment. Then there was the jacket hanging from the bedpost. When Finn saw it he ran around the bed to grab it, afraid that it wasn't real. But it was—the brown leather jacket he'd pulled out of the stolen TIE-fighter, right before Jakku's sands swallowed it. Poe's jacket, which _suited_ Finn so good the pilot's had let him have it.

Finn smiled at the only thing that truly belonged to him. He put one arm into the sleeve and flung it around his back. As he put it on, he felt what was wrong with it. He took it off again and held it up, knowing what he'd see. There was a huge tear across the back of the jacket, its edges burnt and crisp to the touch. Finn ran his finger along the inside of the hole, imagining Kylo Ren's lightsaber shredding his back open. The pain returned, fierce and relentless.

Ruined or not, the jacket was still everything Finn had. He put it back on over the grey and white Resistance sweat suit, stretched his posture to its fullest potential and walked with confident steps out of the med bay. He passed his Twi'lek healer once more, and this time the Twi'lek nodded back. Finn made a mental note to ask the guy's name sometime.

With his priorities in order and doubts buried deep underneath ambition, Finn headed for the main hangar where he'd seen Poe tend to his X-wing that one time. If he was to find a pilot for himself, it was as good a place to start as any.

The place was quite empty when Finn got there, but half-a-dozen uniformed soldiers still went about their business inside. Some carried equipment from one place to the next with purpose, others worked a mechanic's magic on the variety of spacecraft parked in orderly lines along the sides. Finn got the same type of glances as before, only now he returned them with confident respect instead of weary uncertainty. Once he caught eye of a pair dressed in the same orange flight suits as Poe wore, he set his course in their direction.

The pair, a human and a Sarkan female with at least thirty years between them, locked gazes with Finn as he approached and stopped walking. They both had that fascinated expression painted over their professional masks.

Finn spoke first. "Excuse me. My name's Finn. I'm looking for someone who's willing to help me."

He hadn't planned for it to come out that vague, but he was distracted by the looks the pilots gave him. Was he really that strange?

"You're the stormtrooper?" the human female said. "The defected stormtrooper?"

Finn had to stop himself from sounding exasperated. "Yes."

"We heard about you," the Sarkan said. "You saved Commander Dameron from the First Order. You helped bring down the Star Killer."

 _Did he tell everyone about me?_ "Yes, that's me. I mean... You know that Poe's missing, right? That he went on a mission to, uhm... to—"

"That's quite enough of that," came a new voice, loud and deep and feminine.

Finn swallowed the last few syllables, and the two pilots stood almost at attention as the new arrival walked up to them. She was a tall, muscular Twi'lek female with green-golden skin and two pairs of headtails protruding from the back of her head, wrapped in studded leather. She came to stand between Finn and the two pilots, back facing the former.

"Move along," she said to the pilots, whose smiles had been wiped from their faces at her arrival. Both did as they were told, not even glancing Finn's way as they left.

Finn didn't know what the Twi'lek expected of him, so he just stood there looking at her, somewhat awed by the beauty of her race and the striking differences between her towering form and the petite, graceful healer in med bay. The female turned around, arms crossed. She stood at least a head over Finn, and he felt a sudden snap back to another time, another place, when Captain Phasma had stood in front of him and inspected him for enrolling into the FN unit. This woman didn't have Phasma's lack of respect for his existence, but she had a way of taking up space that Phasma did not. Finn felt physically obliged to back away a step or two, as if standing too close would in itself be an invitation to slam him into the ground.

The Twi'lek's headtails seemed to shudder. "You really shouldn't go around preaching rebellion to a bunch of rebels, you know."

Finn didn't know what to say to that, or at all, so he simple remained silent. The woman eyed him some more, then sighed. She walked past him, raising one hand and twirling her finger to gesture for Finn to turn around.

"Walk with me," she said, still loud enough for half the hangar to hear.

The Twi'lek brought Finn to the back of the hangar and through a series of corridors leading deeper into the hillside. They came to a small room at the end of the corridor, with two rows of desks filled with papers and data pads and various office supplies. An small assistant droid hummed as it rolled along the floor, a stack of papers in its clasps. The Twi'lek gestured for Finn to sit down in a chair in front of one of the desks, then took a seat on the other side. She crossed her legs and leaned back casually, her head resting in the back of one hand. Finn decided that if he were to retain any sort of credibility from his preceding rumours, he should at least try to match these people's way of carrying themselves. He straightened his back, sat all the way back on the chair and laid his arms flat on his lap instead of holding hands with himself. For one reason or another, the Twi'lek seemed pleased with his changed posture.

She cleared her throat. "I'm going to go past all the questions about your changed allegiance and skip straight to the part where you're trying to recruit our soldiers for some crazy mission."

Finn saw the chance to use his own confusion to his benefit. He just said the first thing that came to mind. "I want to find and save Poe Dameron. That's all."

"How brave and selfless of you. It's still crazy. Since you're clearly aware of Dameron's current status, you've no doubt been informed by the General of the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. Huh?"

Finn nodded, kept the stern face of a soldier addressing his superior. "Yes, ma'm. He was on a solo mission. He sent a cryptic message."

"I've heard it, he sent it to me." The Twi'lek paused, let her eyes wander across the room for a second. "I'm the Starfighter Corp's Communications Officer, Nayru Sams. I'll tell you, we are under orders from General Organa not to go after Dameron. There is too much at risk and we have little to no information regarding the situation on Askuun. Even if this has nothing to do with the First Order, the _very unstable_  condition of the New Republic, and of this Resistance, is cause enough not to risk another engagement with people who might outgun us."

The words blurred together into a meaningless ramble that essentially told Finn that he couldn't expect any help from these people. That they'd rather leave a dear friend and war hero to his fate on a far-away planet than send even one scout to see what's what.

"Which is exactly why, if you are planning on going after Poe Dameron, you come to me first."

Finn's thought was cut short. "Come again?"

Nayru Sams rolled her eyes. "I said, if you want to save Poe, you come to me first. Clear enough?"

Finn sent all his previous misassumptions into that mental trashcan from before, and let his hopes sprout. Now they were getting somewhere. "So you'll help me?"

"You'll help _me_ ," Nayru said. She leaned forward over the desktop, tapping her fingers against each other. "I've been playing with the idea of setting up a fake mission to cover for a missing ship, or perhaps just improvise and see how far I get without the General's consent. Anyhow, I'm not leaving this organisation's best pilot to fend for himself if there's trouble he's in. Not after all he's done for us."

Finn was back in the narrow maintenance walkway on the _Finalizer_ , where his crazy plans had been made possible with the help of Poe Dameron. Now it was Officer Nayru Sams' turn.

Finn leaned forward, bringing back to mind his sorted list of impossibilities. "We need weapons, and as much detailed information on the Resistance base on Askuun as we can. A ship, of course. Supplies. And we need a full signal analysis of the message Poe sent us. If there's anything in there that we've missed, we need to know."

Nayru Sams had listened to Finn with interest, nodding approvingly. If she was judging him, then she liked what she saw. When Finn was finished, she gave a crooked smile.

"You really are as amazing as Dameron said." Then Nayru pushed the chair backwards and started for the door. "Let's get started."

He wasn't sure if it was the fact that he'd impressed Nayru Sams, or that Poe once again had been telling stories about him when he was knocked out, but Finn felt proud of himself. And even though he had absolutely no idea what he was getting himself into, he felt assured of the mission's success now that he had a head-strong ally by his side who, just like Finn, would do anything to bring their missing pilot back safe and sound. This wasn't what he'd been trained all his life to do, but his training would come in handy. He wouldn't let down the people who believed in him, no matter how few they were. He'd do it for the Resistance fighters who trusted Poe to protect and lead them. He'd do it for General Organa, hands bound to politics but heart pure and strong. He'd do it for Rey, who he knew would do the same thing if she was here. And he'd to it for Poe, because it was still the right thing to do. It would always be the right thing to do.

Finn got up and followed Nayru Sams back into the hangar. This time, he knew exactly what he needed to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not my best chapter, but I feel like it was due time to update this. Send comments with ideas of how you want/think the story will progress!! Some ideas just might end up in the story eventually (credited, of course) <3 Next up: A Pilot's Plight.
> 
> Have a lovely New Year, everyone! <3
> 
> And also, for her family, friends, the entire SW community and everyone mourning—May the Force be with you, Carrie Fisher. You will be missed, loved and honoured as the amazing person that you were. You died drowning in moonlight, strangled by your own bra, like you always wanted.


End file.
